[BTW - Jed is writing some of the best essays book collecting anywhere. Though ostensibly about Burroughs, his analysis of market forces, collector considerations and the art and science of book collecting could easily be applied to any collection. They are also a great resource for Beat history - including insightful backgrounds on the little magazines that surrounded the movement. If you collect books or are simply interested in the Beats, it's all well-worth your time.]

For much of the 19th century this was the home of Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st baronet, whom the world called a bibliomaniac, though his term for himself went still further. Vello-mania, he called his condition, because it ran as much to the purchase and hoarding of documents as it did to books. In the tower he installed a succession of printers, employed to translate his manuscripts into more permanent versions; most left before long, complaining they hadn’t been paid. In the house he stored the fruits of his acquisitional forays at home and abroad: a process already out of hand when he was at Oxford, and rampant forever after. Mostly bought with money he had not got: bills were left unpaid for years – at least one unfortunate bookseller went bankrupt because of it.

(The comments at the end are worth reading as well.)

ABAA-produced documentary filmed entirely on location at the San Francisco Book Fair. Filled with interviews given by both booksellers and attendees, it gives a revealing look at the reason to collect antiquarian books.

Also: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (mislabeled “Part 6″), and (the actual) Part 6.

Available for pre-order from Amazon

And finally, check out this wicked-cool trailer:

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

I don’t need this book, but this almost makes me want to get one.